Howling means filled with a long wailing sound, as a gale is. A howling wind, howling gale, the howling dark.
The sound is made by air forced past edges and openings, not by the wind itself, which is why some houses howl and others do not. Howling also serves as an intensifier — a howling success — where it just means extreme. Note howl beneath it.
1adjectivehowlingFilled with a long wailing sound.
“The howling baby kept everyone on the night train awake.”
howling is a quality of sound.
Howl plus -ing, from Middle English houlen, an imitative word made from the sound.
Middle English
howlynge
English, today
howling
From Middle English howlynge, howelynge, equivalent to howl + -ing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA